Giuliani: Is He Too Secretive?

Given Giuliani's history as Mayor, he would definitely be a clone of King George Dubya. Come to think of it, he reminds me of Clinton just before he left the White House:

Government rules discourage the city's most powerful officeholder from departing with more than token gifts collected on the job. Ed Koch, mayor from 1978 to 1989, recalls keeping some neckties. His successor, David Dinkins, walked away with knickknacks from his desk, including a crystal tennis ball and a collection of photographs documenting his meetings with celebrities and business icons.

When Giuliani stepped down, he needed a warehouse.

Under an unprecedented agreement that didn't become public until after he left office, Giuliani secreted out of City Hall the written, photographic and electronic record of his eight years in office — more than 2,000 boxes.

[...]But the public record, as reviewed by The Associated Press, shows a City Hall that had a reputation of resistance — even hostility — toward open government, the First Amendment and the public's access to simple facts and figures.

[...]"He ran a government as closed as he could make it," said attorney Floyd Abrams, a widely recognized First Amendment authority who faced off against city lawyers when Giuliani sought to shut the Brooklyn Museum of Art because the mayor considered a painting sacrilegious.

It is that secretive nature that explains the controversy over his response to a supposed illness Mr.Giuliani is experiencing:

His campaign will not release any concrete medical information to the press -- raising questions about the former New York mayor's health and the transparency of his campaign.

His campaign shared no concrete medical information about which tests the mayor undertook and what the exact results were, also refraining from allowing the media to see his medical records or speak to his doctors.

Clinton's challenge:

Just one day after a challenge from presidential rival John Edwards to commit to raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton announced that she had already introduced legislation to do just that.

[...]“With stagnant wages and skyrocketing costs for healthcare, energy and college, working families in America need a break. That is why yesterday I introduced legislation to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, and link the minimum wage to Congressional pay raises after that,” said Clinton in a Thursday statement. The senator said the measure was “the first bill ever to call for a $9.50 minimum wage.”

No sign Obama is fading:

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a dead heat among New Hampshire voters ahead of the state's primary contest next month, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll released on Friday.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, and Obama, an Illinois senator, are tied at 32 percent, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards at 18 percent, according to the poll.

In the same poll, McCain is catching up to Romney in NH. With all the endorsements the Arizona Senator has gotten lately, he has a momentum coming at the right time:
In the tightening Republican race there, Mitt Romney, former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, leads Arizona Sen. John McCain 34 percent to 27 percent.

Just last month most New Hampshire polls showed Clinton and Romney with double-digit leads, USA Today said.

Recently Huckabee insulted Bush, now the President is being sued by the Governator:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sue the federal government over its decision not to allow a California plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he announced Thursday.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson announced the decision Wednesday, refusing the state's request for a waiver that would have allowed it to cut emissions faster than a new federal plan the president signed into law Wednesday.

[...]"It's another example of the administration's failure to treat global warming with the seriousness that it actually demands," the governor said at a news conference Thursday.

What do you when the stock market drops? That rights. Give executives on Wall St. big bonuses:

This might have been one of Wall Street's most dismal years in a decade, but that hasn't stopped bonus checks from rising an average of 14 percent.

Four of the biggest U.S. investment banks — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. — will pay out about $49.6 billion in compensation this year. Of that, bonuses are traditionally estimated to represent 60 percent, or almost $30 billion.

But that might not sit well with investors who held on to investment bank stocks this year — and watched them plunge by up to 45 percent. Investment houses have been slammed by the credit crisis, and top executives this past week said they've yet to see a bottom.

If you are planning to travel you might not be reassured that 6 years after 9-11 the airports are no safer:

Airport security lines can annoy passengers, but there is no evidence that they make flying any safer, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

A team at the Harvard School of Public Health could not find any studies showing whether the time-consuming process of X-raying carry-on luggage prevents hijackings or attacks.

They also found no evidence to suggest that making passengers take off their shoes and confiscating small items prevented any incidents.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration told research teams requesting information their need for quick new security measures trumped the usefulness of evaluating them, Eleni Linos, Elizabeth Linos, and Graham Colditz reported in the British Medical Journal.

"We noticed that new airport screening protocols were implemented immediately after news reports of terror threats," they wrote.